Baumgartner Gallery Sturgeon Bay

The Baumgartner Gallery houses a complete Door County lighthouse exhibit, as well as a wide-ranging collection of model ships.

Door County is famous for having the third largest concentration of lighthouses in the United States. The museum’s “Sentinels of the Shore” exhibit brings together all elements of a lighthouse – from the searing beams of light they throw, to the stalwart lighthouse keepers who led a lonely 24-hour-a-day job, to the beauty and grace of the towering lighthouse itself.

Browse a collection of more than 30 models. Massive ocean freighters, jumbo barges and million-dollar luxury yachts are brought down to size in the gallery’s model room.

Modelers Exhibit

See half-hulls used by Sturgeon Bay shipbuilders to direct their work. Revel in the minute details captured by precision modelers, including the exact uniforms worn by crew members, ship life rafts and hovering seagulls – all done to scale and meticulously painted. Enjoy the respected folk art of Guy McCracken of Sturgeon Bay who carved his ships with “$1.49 equipment – a vegetable knife, a jackknife, a couple of pairs of pliers and a little homemade drill